36 - BOTANICAL INFORMATION, 
am, and if compelled to remove, shall return to Pernambuco, 3 
collecting by the way. I am now engaged packing up my — 
plants, which amount to between 300 and 400 species, many 3 
of them very fine things, but how I shall get them to the — 
coast is the difficulty, as they certainly cannot go by way of 1 
Maranham. The vegetation about Oeiras is not very varied, — 
but I believe hardly any thing in flower has escaped me. J 
Leguminose are abundant, but I have found only one : 
orchideous planta Habenaria. I have collected noble 
Specimens of a large yellow-flowered Qualea, which appears 
to be new, two very small species of Eriocaulon, a beautiful 
new annual Gloxinia, and an extremely fine Anemia. 
It is exactly three years to-day, since I quitted Britain, - 
and I am happy to say that I never enjoyed better health, - 
though the hardships I have encountered exceed any thing 
that can be imagined by those who have not essayed the same © 
kind of travelling in a similar country. Still, the real delight | 
I feel in forming my collections, and in hearing that they - 
give satisfaction to those for whom they are destined, more - 
than counterbalances the trials I am obliged to undergo. 1. 
have also received much kindness from all the respectable | 
inhabitants of the different places I visit, and real friendship . 
from many individuals in this city, where my knowledge of | 
medicine and surgery also enables me to afford some relief to E 
many of my suffering fellow-creatures. Some operations I 1 
have lately performed, have brought me no little fame, espe- _ 
cially the depressing of a cataract on the eyes of a very s 1 
respectable shopkeeper who had been blind for twelve months — 
but is now fast recovering his sight. Ihad to make the in- - 
strument myself, which I did by filing a needle to the proper 
shape. A few days ago, I also similarly operated on a poor - 
man who has been blind for years, but I cannot yet pro- — 
nounce on the result. E: ca 
The rains have now ceased, and the climate at this season 
is delightful. In a few months again, the heat will be so 
intense as to burn up every particle of vegetation :—not à 
vestige of verdure will then be seen. dl. qae 
